RWBY: A Boy's (Mis)Take
by thenextgamer
Summary: In an apocalyptic future where mankind is on the brink of extinction, Ross Rose is given the chance to go back in time and save everything. How will he prevent this horrible future? Killing the crap out of the villains who caused it, obviously. Time to vent off some stress. A spin-off from A Boy's Take. Adult and Teenage Genderbent Ruby.
1. TenOuttaTen WindowDiving Skills

**The idea isn't unique, I know. There's probably, like, a dozen time travel fanfics already. But my Writers Block wants me to write this, so I'm going to write it.**

 **Alternate Universe Spin Off from A Boy's Take. Maybe loyal to canon, maybe loyal to original fanfic, maybe loyal to itself. Either way, enjoy.**

* * *

My eyes lingered on a picture in my journal. A special picture.

A picture of my family, from a better time. Better than today, at least.

Me, in the middle, with a content smile on my face, arms around my sister and my best friend. I was convinced nothing could go wrong.

My sister, her short golden hair forever shining brightly. Her prosthetic metal hand making bunny ears behind my head, with an equally-shining smile of a champion.

Her partner stood next to her, with her ribbon-bandana flowing in the wind. Her cat-like ears were out in the open for all to see, and nobody really minded it. Her calm smile in this photo was the first smile she'd given in a long time.

The other one beside me had a goofy grin of his own. His blonde beard really put more emphasis on his blue eyes for some reason. He wore his family armor with pride.

Next to him, my partner. Even with the eyepatch, it never really diminished her elegance and beauty. Her regal clothing was as white as her long flowing hair. I remembered a time when she used to keep it in a pony tail. She was definitely cuter asymmetrical.

On the side next to her, the rest of the team that my best friend was leader of. A usually quiet man of Eastern descent, holding a usually not-at-all-quiet woman in pink by her waist. For some odd reason, despite being so close to each other, they were never "together together."

There was another picture. A small cutout picture that was taped on top of the group photo in the corner. A picture that was taken long before the one behind it. The red-haired Mistral Regional Champion of four years in a row. I wished she was there with us when we took our picture. We would have been complete.

I have stared at this picture many times. Enough where I could just see it whenever I closed my eyes.

In large text underneath, a sloppily handwritten reminder to myself.

 _ **NEVER FORGET THE HAPPIER TIMES**_

I heard footsteps of someone walking towards me. Prepared for my mission briefing, I pocketed my journal away, and saluted at the figure approaching.

"Commander Goodwitch, ma'am."

An aged woman with eyes that seemed a lot older than they should have been stood in front of me. She scoffed at my salutations, "There really is no point in you greeting me like that anymore, Ross."

I slowly set my hand down, but didn't let my posture slouch. "Sorry. Force of habit." I apologized.

"You still have the device?"

I pulled out the pistol receiver from my jacket. It was one of the many things that the Headmaster left behind. With this, there was a chance that everything in the world could be fixed. A chance to prevent the war. A chance to go back and prevent this terrible future from ever happening.

The human race was nearly extinct. There were but a few of us left, barely surviving in this apocalypse. We were all so distracted with the war against the White Fang, we never noticed the Grimm taking advantage and slaughtering us from behind. We were so preoccupied with the war we were fighting in, that we had already forgotten about a previous war that never even ended.

Humans were dead. Faunus were dead. Society had collapsed and was now just ruins for the Grimm to move in. Everyone I knew and loved either died in the pointless war, or died during the Grimm invasions.

Mankind had lost.

But with the item that I held in my hand…

"You really think this could work?" I asked her, unsure of this idea myself.

"Does it really matter? We've got nothing left to lose. So why not try and hope for the best?"

"I never thought I'd hear that sentence ever come out of your mouth."

We stood in front of the old ruins of Beacon Academy. Even though I already cleared the area from Grimm, there was going to be more arriving soon to take their place.

"To imagine that Ozpin was actually trying to build a time machine…" I shook my head, still wrapping my head around the idea. "I didn't think he was the kind of guy to believe in that kind of stuff."

"Personally, I wasn't surprised when I found out about this. He wanted to do everything he could to make a sort of fail safe plan in case everything went wrong. Even if the things he came up with seemed outlandish and impossible." She seemed to smile a bit at a fond memory, before it went away as quickly as it came. "If this actually works, then you know what to do."

"Affirmative." I nodded. "It's just a shame I can't bring you along with me. What will happen to you if this all works out?"

"Well, if it all works out, I wouldn't be here looking at a destroyed academy building and awaiting death, now would I?" She said. "And you know that I can't come along. The device will only work if it's traveling at the speed of five hundred miles per hour. You're the only one with a semblance that can reach that velocity. It's not like we could just find a vehicle around that just so happens to have a world record breaking engine."

"Right…"

Only I could do this. I was mankind's last chance at survival.

"There's no telling what could happen when you use that device. You could go back in time before the Vytal Tournament, but there's also the possibility of you going back even further than that. Perhaps even further than the medieval ages."

"Yeah, that'd probably suck." I shrugged.

"But if you do make it back only far enough, before the start of the Vytal Festival, then you need to remember what you have to do. Find and locate Cinder Fall and her accomplices. Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, and Roman Torchwick, including Adam Taurus, and many of his White Fang second-in-commands. Then…"

"I have to kill them all before they set out the motions that started the War on White Fang." I finished for her. "I have all of their names and ID photos stored in my journal, and ingrained in my memories, in case I lose this thing."

She nodded in affirmation, "Alone, it may prove difficult. But with knowledge of future events, and with the assistance of Ozpin, Ironwood, your uncle, and my past self, you may be able to accomplish your mission without a hitch."

"Man… Going back to actually see Ozpin and Uncle Qrow alive and well again. It's hard to believe."

"On the topic of past selves and finding things hard to believe, it's in all likelihood that I, by which I mean my younger self, will have difficulty believing you. Ozpin, I highly suspect, will believe you straight away though. That's just the type of person he is." She shook her head, and resumed her briefing. "But for me, it'll take some evidence before I'll be convinced."

"Alright. So what should I tell her to prove I really am from the future?"

"The first time I ever met Ozpin, he spilled coffee on my clothes."

"Pfft, seriously? Hope it wasn't freshly hot." I smirked.

"Focus Ross. Remember everything I'm going to tell you. Forget even one thing, and your credibility might be ruined." She reminded.

"Right, right. What else?"

"I wasn't born in Vale. My birthplace was actually in Atlas. Nobody else except Ozpin and I know of this."

"I could believe that."

"My mother's full maiden name was Margaret Elizabeth Ligon Turner-"

A loud roar from the distance interrupted her. As we turned around, we saw a vast army of thousands of Grimm charging towards our location. Leading them from above was the Grimm Dragon, packs of Elder Nevermores following closely behind.

"Shit, they're here." I growled.

"We don't have much time. Activate the device!" She frantically commanded.

Switching off the safety pin, a holographic pistol barrel appeared on the gun.

This was it then. This was either going to send me back in time before the Vytal Tournament, screw up horribly and send me back to the Stone ages, or not work at all and leaving me to look like an idiot as I die a horrible painful death at the claws of a million Grimm.

Either way, I had the feeling that the trip was going to suck.

Just when I was about to activate my semblance, she stopped me by the shoulder. "One last thing you need to remember in case everything I've mentioned still fails to convince me that you're from the future. Tell her this phrase: 'It looks like a Puma.'"

"The hell does that mean?" I asked, perplexed.

"It's a really stupid reference to something I like to watch in secret. I made great strides to never let anyone find out about it, so I should be the only one to understand what it means." She explained. "Now go!"

"Good luck on your end, Ma'am." I nodded, before preparing to run. "I'll miss you."

"Don't worry. If all goes well, you'll see me again before you know it." She gave me a fond smile.

"You know that's not what I meant." I smiled back at her.

Facing forward, I activated my semblance. The feeling of rushing winds and rose petals caressed my face as I began to run as fast as I could.

I needed to reach at least five hundred miles per hour. Once I maintain the speed for at least three seconds, the device would be charged up. After that, I needed to make a direct ninety degree angle towards the Beacon buildings, and shoot the device at its direction. A portal would show up and stick around for only half a second. I couldn't let it go to waste.

The gun didn't seem to be charged yet. I had to go faster.

I have absolutely no idea how to tell whether I've reached five hundred miles per hour. I don't even think I've ever run that fast before.

As I kept running in circles around the academy, I found myself annoyed that the gun still hadn't charged up yet. Did I need to go even faster?

Fine, let's not tiptoe carefully around this. I'll just give it my all.

I stopped conserving my aura, and just poured all of it into my semblance.

The rushing wind in my face that normally gave me comfort for so long now felt like it was burning my face off. I ran so quickly that flowing rose petals that fluttered by now felt like razors, cutting up my skin.

And yet still, the gun wasn't freaking charged yet!

Not only did I stop saving any reserve of aura within me, I started exerting my physical energy as well, hoping it would help.

My lungs were burning. My heart was booming. My legs were aching. Everything was a blur. I felt like I could drop dead at any second.

That was when I saw the gun glowing brightly.

There was my cue.

I immediately made a left turn, towards the old cafeteria building.

As I aimed forwards, I jumped, and pulled the trigger. Something shot out of the gun and landed just in front of me.

That's when I saw it. The insides of a giant portal.

What did I see?

I saw everything ever.

Then once I reached inside…

I stopped existing for a brief moment.

* * *

"I don't think that's a good idea to try in the midst of battle." Blake commented as she plopped a piece of sushi in her mouth.

"You're right." I agreed, nodding sagely before exclaiming, "It's a freaking GENIUS IDEA!"

"Okay, can you please give an explanation on how playing upbeat music in the middle of battle is a 'tactical advantage?'" Weiss asked, seemingly unable to wrap her head around my badass idea.

"So, you all know about the famous theory on how Grimm are attracted to negative emotions, right?" I started off.

Everyone around the lunch table nodded.

"By that logic, that means that having negative emotions make the Grimm stronger. So by THAT logic, positive emotions, which are the opposites of negative emotions, should theoretically make the Grimm weaker, right?"

"I guess that makes sense." Jaune furrowed his brows in thought.

"Eehh~?" Pyrrha shrugged unsurely.

"And what's one of the many things that can evoke positive emotions? Music of course! They're happy, they're snappy, they're fun to listen to and have the spiritual power of making you move to a rhythm that you've never moved to before! I propose that we weaponize our Mp3 players during hunts. Not only will we have a more enjoyable time, which will provide a moral boost, our positive emotions will make it tons easier to kill off the Grimm! If we make this idea popular and get everyone everywhere to get happy, we'll eventually be able to overcome the Grimm, and beat their dark soulless asses to extinction! Eh? Eh? Good idea, yes?" I grinned excitedly.

They all looked at me silently.

Then Yang started to snicker, and they all went back to casually eating their food.

"Ross, I don't think it works like that. Good try though! You might come up with something soon!" She praised/teased as she kept chuckling at my original idea.

"Pfft, laugh all you want Yang." I sat back down and brought a glass of milk up near my lips. "One of these days, I'm gonna be the guy that'll save the entire world from the Grimm. Then I'll be the one laughing! You'll see."

"Sure Ross. I have no doubts about that." Yang shook her head, taking a bite of her burger.

"I for one, think that's a kicking idea!" Nora complimented. "Just imagine, all of us charging towards an army of Grimm, and playing in the background, dramatic Death Metal music!"

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" I smiled, before realizing what she said and replied, "Uh, maybe except the Death Metal music. That seems kinda counter productive."

Then without warning, we heard thunder booming. We all looked from the window to see dark clouds forming outside.

"Really?" Weiss groaned bitterly, "Didn't the weather forecasters say there'll be clear skies for the rest of the week? Shows how competent they are at their jobs."

"You can't blame it all on them, Weiss. Mother nature does what it wants, even if we try to-"

I was interrupted when lightning flashed, and out of nowhere, a red blur came crashing through the windows of the cafeteria building.

Nearby students shouted and screamed in surprise, as the red object came tumbling down the long lunch tables.

Tumbling and tumbling, knocking food and drinks off the tables, showing no signs of stopping.

Until finally, coming to a sliding halt a few meters far away from the window it crashed into.

Which was, conveniently enough, right on top of our table, causing our food to spill off and making a huge mess everywhere.

"Agh! My lunch!" "The hell?!" "No, not on my uniform!" "Are you alright?" "Fuck, my milk!"

We all paused from our confusion when we heard a groan from the the thing that crashed onto our table.

Upon closer inspection, the red thing was actually just some guy in a red trench coat. His clothes were dirty, and his black hair seemed unkempt. He looked like he was tall enough to be an adult. Couldn't get a good look on his face though, since he was still facing down.

"Oohh dust... fucking knew... that was gonna suck." The man wheezed, apparently out of breath.

Did this guy jump out of a moving plane or something? How the hell did he land so far inside the building?

Meanwhile, Weiss was having a fit about her clothes getting dirty. "Ugh! You got mayonnaise and tea on my uniform! Do you have any idea how long it's going to take to remove these stains, you crazy window-diving lunatic?!" She screamed in outrage at him.

"I haven't even finished my lunch! Aaww, fourteen liens worth in sandwiches, all wasted away!" Woe is Jaune, who could never catch a break.

"Those voices… Weiss? Jaune?" The guy whispered.

Wait, what?

The way he said Weiss and Jaune's name shut both of them up, and kept the rest of us silent.

How did he know Weiss and Jaune? Who was this guy?

The guy started to move his left arm upright, trying to push himself up. When he raised his head to look at us, we finally got a better look at his face-

"Holy shit."

The guy's face… looked exactly like me.

He looked around the table, eyes widening as he met eyes with everyone else. We all just sort of stared in shock.

When he finally looked at me, his opened his mouth in astonishment. I took a few steps back in surprise from how similar he looked.

"Hello?" I greeted the weird old version of me.

"Huh. It actually worked." He said to himself.

"Eh?" I so eloquently expressed my confusion.

As he slowly pulled himself up, he slurred, "So this is gonna be a long story. But first things first, I need to see Headmaster Oz- Okay, can't feel my legs." He suddenly tilted forward off the table and fell face-first on the floor, instantly passing out.

There I was, in the cafeteria room with my friends, surrounding a man that looked exactly like me. The room was full of confused and startled students, and my friends were all looking at me as if I had the answers for what was happening.

But fuck if I had any clue of what was going on.

…

I'm going to get another glass of milk.

* * *

 **WRITER'S BLOCK.**

 **THE BAAAAAAAANE OF MY EXISTENCE.**


	2. Ozpin Watches Me Sleep

Ozpin stood quietly in the patient's room, observing the nurse tending to the unconscious guest. The room was rather silent, besides the steady beeping of the stranger's heart monitor.

After the nurse had finished writing her records on her scroll tablet, she walked over to Ozpin to tell her report.

"So, how is our unexpected window crasher?" He asked her.

"Well, he seems stabilized for now. This man is either the world's most resilient person, or the world's luckiest. By the time we got to him, he barely had any reserve of aura within him. It's amazing how he hasn't suffered any major damages besides a few scratches around his body. He'll most likely be fine, just needs some rest. It's just surprising, since most normal people usually don't survive with such low aura levels, especially the ones who've already unlocked their aura." She explained.

"Another topic to bring up when we get to questioning him later, if he wakes up." Ozpin nodded, before asking: "Have you been able to identify who he is? Checked through his belongings for any hint of information about him?"

"We ran a fingerprint scan and a DNA blood test, but I'm not sure whether the results are accurate."

"What do you mean?"

With a few hand gestures on her tablet, she brought up the result screen from the last DNA test. "Our records show that his fingerprints are an exact match with one of the students attending our academy. One 'Ross Rose.' Blood test results gave the same conclusion."

"That's not physically possible, though. That very same student is currently waiting outside of the patient's room at this very moment." Ozpin pointed out.

"Which is why I'm so confused." The nurse knitted her brows. "Comparing the facial features of both the patient and Ross Rose himself, I found that the patient looks remarkably similar to Ross Rose, albeit just a few years older. Perhaps there's a chance that he's a relative of the student? An elder sibling, or maybe his biological father?" She suggested.

"No, that's not possible either." Ozpin shook his head, before explaining, "I personally know Ross's uncle, and there has definitely never been mention of an older brother. As for the theory of this man being Ross's biological father, well, even though he looks like a fully grown adult, he doesn't appear to be that old. The man looks to be in his early to mid-twenties. Ross Rose is currently fifteen years old. I'm sure you can do the math."

"Welp, it's not like I can provide any concrete answers. The only other clues about him were his belongings, and even those didn't really provide much of a hint. Although..." Walking towards a table holding the stranger's items, the nurse picked up a small journal they had found that was in the stranger's pants. "We did find some sort of journal among his possessions."

"A journal? Was there anything written in it?" Ozpin asked, curious.

"It acts more like a picture book, really. On the first page seems to be a group photo of him and his close friends, along with a picture of the renown Pyrrha Nikos taped to the corner." The nurse handed the journal over to Ozpin, which he wasted no time studying.

What he saw on the first page made him double take for a moment. A picture of seven familiar faces all smiling towards the camera, and an old, withered photograph of Pyrrha Nikos taped in the corner, just as the nurse described. Underneath the photograph was a sentence written in bold words.

 _ **NEVER FORGET THE HAPPIER TIMES**_

Curious. Very curious indeed.

"If you keep turning the pages, you'll see that he has more pictures of various people taped, along with some sort of list of descriptions for each of them." The nurse explained. "Many of them seem to be photographs of known criminals, like Roman Torchwick. Is there a chance that he could be related to some sort of underground crime syndicate that performs contract killings?"

Ozpin flipped to the next few pages to see various different pictures of different people.

A woman with fiery orange eyes, and long hair that was as dark as burnt ashes.

 **Cinder Fall  
** -Megalomaniac.  
-Manipulative bitch.  
-Murderer.

 _Kill at all cost. Highest Priority._

A young girl with green hair and red piercing eyes.

 **Emerald Sustrai  
** -Greedy extortionist.  
-Messes with people psychologically with illusion semblance.  
-Murderer.

 _Slit her throat._

A young man of silver spiky hair, and a cocky grin.

 **Mercury Black  
** -Slave Driver.  
-Rapist.  
-Murderer.

 _Cut arms off. Then kill him._

A man with red hair, and a Grimm-like mask that hid his face.

 **Adam Taurus  
** -Hypocritical leader of White Fang.  
-Cruel and ruthless to all humans, and any Faunus who defies him.  
-Murdered her.

 _MAKE HIM SUFFER._

And a familiar criminal dressed in a white overcoat, smoking a cigar.

 **Bowlerhat-Wearing Douchebag  
** -Stupid hat.  
-Stupid grin.  
-Called me short.

 _Eh, I actually sort of liked him. Might_ _switch to my side?_

As Ozpin kept turning more pages, he continued to see more people in a similar layout. A picture, a name, a list of crimes and actions, and perhaps the most disturbing part of them all, whether they should be killed or not.

As disturbing as this kill list was though, his curiosity was still being held by the photograph on the first page.

The seven people on the picture… They all bared a remarkably similar appearance with a certain group of students that attended this school.

Was it possible that… Maybe…?

Hm...

"What else were in his possessions?" Ozpin asked, closing the journal and handing it back to the nurse.

"Well, he only had three other things with him besides that journal." The nurse led Ozpin back to the table. "A badge that signifies he's a licensed Huntsman, but when we tried to search his serial number in the database, there's been no record of his existence. It's probably a counterfeit."

Ozpin held the badge up in the light to closely examine it.

Same size. Same weight. Looks exactly like every other Vale licensed badge for Huntsmen and Huntresses. Serial number is UARC770.

He put the badge aside for now and moved on with the next item. It was some sort of box, with a red and black color scheme.

"Originally, we thought it was some sort of storage case with supplies inside. After attempting to open it though, it's revealed that pressing the middle switch activates some sort of camera function instead. It must have been what he used to take all those photographs in his journal. There's no other camera out there like that, so it's probably something he personally created himself."

As she said that, Ozpin carefully picked up the item, and pressed the button in the middle to test it. A lens whirred itself out from inside the button and a camera flash popped up from the corner.

"Why would someone need to disguise a camera to look like a storage case?" Ozpin pondered to himself, "It seems like a rather inefficient camouflage, considering how easy it was to discover the camera features. If it was at least able to store items inside, it could fool some of the more inefficient investigators."

"Perhaps that's not its original intention, then? Maybe there's more to it than just a camera?" The nurse offered.

Ozpin continued to examine the camera for a bit before finding nothing of interest, eventually setting it down and moving on to the next and final item on the table.

It appeared to be a handle for some disassembled gun. The barrel and slide were completely missing.

"We tried to look for any broken pieces of a pistol in the cafeteria room, but we still haven't found anything. Either it's still lost in the wreckage of the mess he made, or this man was just carrying around a disassembled pistol for some reason." The nurse held the item in her hands for a moment, before passing it on to Ozpin.

The moment Ozpin touched the item though, a wave of déjà vu passed through him. It was strange, what he was feeling, but it was almost like he should know what this gun does. It was almost like he'd seen this particular disassembled part of the gun before.

Almost autonomously, he flicked the safety switch off.

Nothing happened.

The sudden wave of déjà vu disappeared, and Ozpin was back to staring at the item in confusion.

Strange.

"Don't bother." The nurse said, "We've tried test firing the gun to see if it works without the other parts, just in case that's how he uses it as a weapon. It doesn't do anything though. It's just a broken gun part."

"I see." Ozpin frowned, rather disappointed. "Is there nothing else that he has that can tell us who he is?"

"Nope. The only way we can get answers is from the mouth of the man himself. But until he wakes up, we can only guess." The nurse fiddled around her scroll tablet for a moment before finishing up, "Now, unless there's anything else you need, I'll be off to take care of my other patients."

"Of course. Thank you, nurse."

They both politely nodded to each other, before the nurse left the room.

* * *

Nurse Hatlen came out of the patient's room and addressed me, "Ross, you can come in now for questioning," before walking down the hallway.

I looked at Yang. She looked at me. We both looked at Weiss and Blake. They both looked back at us. Then they all looked at me.

Silence ensued.

It'd only been a few hours since the lunch period. After the strange encounter with the guy who looked like me, Beacon's staff carried him back to the Medical rooms, and were starting to clean up the giant mess the dude caused. We were all told that the lunch period would be ended early and to go prepare for our next classes.

Well, except for team RWBY. We were all called in to wait by the hallway next to the stranger's door. Ozpin apparently wanted to talk to me, but wanted the rest of my team along just in case he had any extra questions that I couldn't answer alone.

So now, here we were.

I sighed, "Welp, I can already tell that this is going to be a roller coaster of a day." I moved to stand up and prepare myself for… whatever was going to happen next. "Wish me luck guys."

I grabbed the door handle and, looking back for just a brief moment to see Yang giving me a thumbs up and Blake giving a weak smile with Weiss just shrugging, I walked into the room.

First thing I saw was the guy that looked like me, unconscious on the patient's bed.

This was still incredibly weird.

Ozpin was beside the bed, examining him like a hawk. When he heard me opening the door, he turned his head towards me and said, "Ah, Ross. Thank you for being patient."

"So, uh…" I awkwardly started, "Are we going to talk about… him?" I motioned to the comatose lookalike.

"Indeed." Ozpin affirmed, "Do you happen to know who this man is?"

I walked over to the other side of the bed across from Ozpin, and got a closer look at the guy.

Wow, it felt weird to watch myself sleep.

Huh, didn't think I'd ever have to internally think that sentence in my life.

I gotta admit though, it was like looking in some sort of… futuristic mirror. Besides his hair being a bit longer compared to mine, his face was so similar, it was uncanny.

Was he, like, some sort of long lost brother or something?

"Yeah, no, I have absolutely no idea who he is." I answered. "Do you know who he is, though?"

"Sadly, it appears that I lack an answer for this mystery, too. Any attempt to search for his identity either leads to a dead end or points back to you, Ross. The only clue we have about who he is was a journal he had in his possessions."

"A journal? Well, did he write anything in it?" I asked.

"Not… necessarily." Ozpin hesitated for a moment, before deciding to pick up the small journal from a table and handing it to me. "Look at the first page. Is there anything significant about it that stands out to you?"

"Well, I don't exactly know if I'm able to answer that. It's not like I know what he would have-" I opened the journal to the first page, "what da faaaaaaaack?"

"I see." Ozpin noted my reaction.

Forget my day being a huge rollercoaster ride, I've officially crossed over the freaking Twilight Zone!

It was a group picture of me and literally all of my friends! There was Yang, but she had short hair for some reason, and some sort of weird metal arm thing on! A-and Blake had cat ears and a black bandanna!

Weiss actually looked like a genuine princess from a royal castle, except with a white eyepatch covering her left eye!

Nora's hair got longer, Ren's hair got shorter-

Jaune has a beard!

I was actually taller than Yang!

The only person that didn't look any different at all was Pyrrha, but she was on a different picture that was taped on top of the group picture.

How in the world did this…

"Is it… maybe possible that this guy was…" I speculated in an unsure tone.

"Possible that he was what? Do you have an idea of who he is?"

"Well… okay so this is probably going to sound incredibly unbelievable, but just hear me out. What if this guy..." I paused for dramatic tension.

…

"Was me, from another dimension."

Ozpin stared at me like I had grown a talking tongue on my forehead. "Another dimension?" He asked doubtfully.

"I don't know! I'm still freaking out over the photo in his journal! My brain is just following movie logic at this point! It's not like I have answers to any of this!" I shouted.

I felt a headache coming on.

With him looking exactly like me, sounding exactly like me, wearing red clothing like me, and then there's the group photo in his journal, all of this just felt so… AUGH.

"Just who the hell is this guy?"

"I feel like you people have been doing nothing but just standing around and repeating that question over and over again while I was out." I cheekily replied to myself.

…

I DIDN'T SAY THAT WAITWHAT-

* * *

As I watched my younger self get startled and make random noises while giving bewildered looks at me, the only thing that crossed my mind was:

 _This is really weird._

It's not everyday you go back in time and watch your own self sputter and freak out in front of you. It was like looking at some sort of… philosophical mirror. Like I'm watching my true inner self come to life as a physical entity right before my very eyes.

In a way, this was also hilarious.

"I ju- What?!" He finally calmed down enough to finish his noise-making ritual of awkward confusion.

"Yo." I calmly greeted.

"Uh…" He stammered, looking back and forth in confusion.

Right, I used to be socially awkward back then, wasn't I? I know how to fix this.

"Dude, you are really short for your age." I randomly pointed out.

Which was true. I'm sort of amazed how much I've grown since my first Beacon year. I was like, what, five foot seven back then? Thank Oum for milk.

"I'M NOT SHORT, GO TO HELL." Younger me predictably reacted.

Man, this was so weird.

Alright, time to evaluate the setting and situation, and reassess the mission.

Setting: I am currently in the past. Surprising results, but not exactly complaining. I'm talking to a young, five-foot-seven version of myself in what looks like the familiar room of the medical facility in Beacon. Considering that this place wasn't reduced to rubble yet, I can safely come to the conclusion that I made it back before the events of the Vytal Tournament. It was going exactly as planned. Also surprising, but not complaining. If I was talking to my younger self while in Beacon, this would mean the time period was around my first year in Beacon. Problem is, I wasn't sure what semester.

Situation: I'm lying in a bed and connected to an IV tube and a heart monitoring machine. I arrived in a rather loud fashion, crashing through the cafeteria windows. That meant my sudden appearance here had caused quite a stir within the student body. Not exactly as planned, but I could work with this.

Mission: Make contact with Ozpin and the other Guardians of the Maidens. Work together to search for all forty-two of my targets. Prevent the events of the future from happening by killing and/or subduing every single one of them. Failure is not an option.

Side Objective: Don't let anyone die this time around.

My path down this road was clear.

"Ahem." An old friend cleared his throat to gain my attention.

I couldn't help but stare at Ozpin for a bit. Even though I knew I was going to see a lot of people alive again, it really didn't hit home with me until I was actually face to face with the Headmaster himself.

"Woah… I can't believe I'm actually seeing you in person again. It's really been a long time, Professor Ozpin." I gave a warm smile.

"Hm. It appears that you already know who I am. That means I don't need to introduce myself." He walked over and sat in a chair next to me, meeting me at my eye level. "Unfortunately, this elderly man can't seem to remember who you are. Would you be so kind as to tell me what your name is again?"

"And also explain why you look so much like me, and why you have a picture of all of my friends from some alternate dimension!" The other Ross butted in.

"Don't worry. I realize that you're going to be really confused, and you'll be asking a lot of questions. I fully intend to answer every single one of them. But for it to all make sense, I'm going to have to explain a few things." I said.

I took a deep breath, and blew it all out.

Time to change history. Literally.

"This is going to sound incredibly unbelievable, but please just hear me out." I proceeded to drop the bomb. "My name is Ross Rose. I'm from nine years in the future. I've come back in time to warn you about a catastrophic war that'll cause the extinction of mankind."

Ozpin widened his eyes.

Young me dropped his jaw.

*Dramatically loud silence*

…

…

…

"Huh. Time travel. That's sort of like alternate dimensions, in a way. I was pretty close."


	3. Getting To Know Myself (Is Weird)

"-which we ended up finding your working prototype time machine and the blueprints on how to use it. Sure, a normal person would have probably chalked it up as a broken project from a crazy old guy, but we were literally so desperate to try anything, we didn't even question whether or not it would've worked. We just hoped." I explained to Ozpin on how I was able to come across a time traveling machine.

Ozpin nodded in silence, a contemplative look on his face the entire time as he held the gun that brought me here.

Younger Ross had a troubled look on his face ever since I explained the terrible and violent events that'd take place in the future.

"So that's how I ended up here. All because of that thing over there." I finished expositioning, nodding at the gun in Ozpin's hands. "Any questions so far? Need me to repeat anything?"

Younger Ross raised his hand.

"You know, you can just ask me what's on your mind instead of raising your hand. We're not in a classroom." I told him.

"Right, sorry." He awkwardly apologized, before asking, "So, uh, even though you've just explained to us about how… fucked up the future is, you being here means that you're going to stop that from happening, right? You're going to do your best to stop the war and make everything stay normal?"

"Well, that _is_ the plan. There's still much more to it than that, though. I haven't told you guys everything, just a brief explanation on why and how I got here. I still have some things I need to talk about alone with Ozpin, Glynda, and the rest of the other adults." I answered.

"Wait, why just them? Aren't you going to tell me any of this? I mean, I probably play a big role in all this, right?"

I scratched the back of my head, picking my words carefully. "See kid… um… there are just some things that aren't meant to be… known by other people just yet. Sensitive information that only Ozpin and I could understand. It's probably safer for you if you didn't know what I'm talking about."

"But isn't the fact that you knowing all of this would mean that I eventually come to know of it myself, since you're technically me? Wouldn't it be even _more_ safe if you told me what I was going to already know?"

"Yeah, don't play the time travel shenanigans on me, kid. I'm still not telling you everything just yet." I deadpanned.

"Damn it." He cursed.

I turned my head over to Ozpin. "What about you Ozpin? Do you have anything to ask me?"

When I asked that, he abruptly stood up from his seat. "Yes. A lot of things, to be precise. But I… need some time to digest everything you've just told me." Pocketing the time travel gun into his coat, he prepared to walk out of the room. "Please, remain here and get rested. When I'm ready to speak further with you, I'll call you up to my office. Is that clear?"

"Affirmative." I nodded seriously to his demand.

Then he left.

So there I was, alone in a room with my own self, waiting for my aura levels to recover, wearing a drafty patient gown, and stuck to a bed while connected to tons of outdated (to me at least) machinery.

It was uncomfortably silent.

I was sort of just staring at my other self while he was sort of just staring back at me.

Awkwardly.

Silently.

Awkwardly silently.

He was fidgeting around and twiddling his thumbs, clearly wanting to ask me something.

It was really weird to see my own social awkwardness in person. How long has it been since I grew out of my social shell?

Guess I'd better start off the conversation, then.

"If you keep twiddling your thumbs like that, they'll eventually catch on fire."

"Oh! Um, right..." He stopped, looking startled by me initiating the conversation first.

"Why are you being so quiet and intimidated around me? You were acting just fine when Ozpin was around." I asked, genuinely curious about what was going on in my own head from the past.

"Well… it's just… really weird to talk to myself." He explained. "I mean, one day I was just living out my life like normal, and now suddenly I'm in a situation where I meet someone who says to be me from nine years in the future, and dropping a huge bomb on me about how there's going to be a war that'll kill thousands of people and cause the entire world to end. Like, how do I even properly react to that?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean kid. I'll be honest, I wasn't exactly expecting to go back in time and meet a teenaged version of myself either. But, you know, when life gives you lemons, you roll with what you got." I shrugged.

"Life doesn't normally give you lemons that come from the future and tell you about how the world's going to end!" He rebutted.

"This is a really weird metaphor."

"IT _IS_ WEIRD."

…

Now back to awkward silence again.

Not sure I did a good job at improving the tension in the air.

…

"Hey, uh…" Oh, he was going to start off the next conversation. Cool. "I took a peek at your journal." He said, taking out and handing my journal to me.

"Oh." Craptastic. How was I going to explain myself out of this one? "I see… How much did you look inside?" I asked, taking the journal back.

"To be honest, I only looked at the picture from the first page. I was a bit too freaked out to look over the rest of it."

Oh, okay. That was convenient. So he didn't know about the kill list I made. That was good.

"So… you really are me from the future, huh?" He asked again, already knowing the answer.

I still nodded anyway. "Yep. Surprise." Insert obligatory party blowout noisemaker here.

"I have… _so_ many questions that I want to ask you. I just can't seem to pick which one to ask first."

"Hey, just take your time kiddo. It's not like I'm gonna go anywhere soon." I reassured him.

I waited patiently for him to decide what to ask, observing him as he had some sort of internal conflict expressed on his face.

Eventually, he made up his mind and asked me what I was expecting him to ask. "Everyone in the photo… what happened to them? Some of them looked so different and weird. Yang had a metal arm thing, Weiss had an eyepatch, and Blake had cat ears on her head. What's up with that?"

"Hm… So I ended up during the time before you guys ever met Penny and Sun." I muttered to myself.

"Uh, what?"

"Don't worry about it. Anyways, I guess it's safe enough to answer those questions." I cleared my throat, and began explaining. "At some point in the relatively near future, something bad happened at Beacon. Something really bad. Our sister got herself in a fight that she didn't have a chance in winning. She was trying to do her best to save Blake from getting killed, and… she ended up losing her arm to a certain man that I've quickly grown to hate." I ended bitterly.

"Someone cut off her arm?!" He repeated, predictably shocked.

"Yeah. It took her a while to recover, but she eventually found someone to make a really good prosthetic metal arm. Still though, that day really traumatized her."

"Who the hell was the guy that took her arm?!" He asked, understandably pissed off.

"This might be a bit too early for you to know, but the guy's name is Adam Taurus. He's the leader of the White Fang."

"Wait a minute, why was he going after Blake and my sister? What did they do that made this Adam guy want to kill them?"

"Well, the answer to that question would only make sense if I tell you a bit about Blake." I told him. "As you can obviously tell from the photograph, she has cat ears. That means she's actually a Faunus."

"A Faunus? I never knew that she was a Faunus. Why is she keeping that a secret from us?"

"That's a long and complicated answer that I'd rather you hear from Blake herself, to be honest."

"Okay, fair enough… But that still doesn't make any sense! If this guy was the leader of the White Fang, why would he try to kill Blake if she's a Faunus? Doesn't that go against the White Fang message of wanting every Faunus to be treated equally in society or something?"

"You wanna know the truth? I'll tell you why he wanted to kill Blake even though she's a Faunus. It's because he's a petty and despicable hypocrite, who only wanted to get back at her for breaking up with him because she found out that he was a fucking psychopath!" I found myself angrily shouting. "He didn't care about equality for Faunus, all he cared about was killing as many people as he could get away with and to oppress humans every chance he got! He was a lying scumbag that sold out his own group by working with the very same humans that he vowed to never _ever_ work with! When I finally find that bastard again, I am going to make him suffer absolute _hell_ before I slowly watch the life get sucked out of his-" It was at that moment I realized that I was probably freaking my younger self out.

I paused in my rant to glance at- Okay, yep, definitely freaked out. I should probably take it down a notch.

"Sorry about that. I just really hate that guy." I awkwardly scratched my head.

"Yeah, I think that was obvious from the get go."

"Right. Sorry…" I apologized again, before trying to change the topic to something else. "So anyway, about Weiss's eyepatch-"

"Ross? Are you alright? I can hear you yelling." A very very familiar voice called from behind the door.

It was the same voice that comforted me every time I went to sleep after mom died. The same voice that always teased me and poked fun at my expense. The same voice that always screamed in anger whenever I accidentally messed with her hair.

It was Yang's voice.

I was going to see her alive again.

I was going to see everyone alive again.

Young Ross looked at me with a worried expression. "Should I let the others in? Are you okay with that?"

I didn't hesitate to let him know how much I was more than 'okay' with that. My head nodded so frantically, I couldn't think straight.

"Alright then. I'll go introduce you to them." He said, noticeably nervous from how I responded.

As he moved up to open the door, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. Memories of everyone I knew and loved started flowing into my head. Memories of Yang giving me a playful noogie, of Weiss promising me how she'll be more of a team player from now on, of Blake purring whenever she let me pet her ears.

Memories of Jaune giving me his hand so I could pick myself up from the ground, of Pyrrha saving my life when I forgot to bring my weapon to stop a robbery, of Ren calming walking me through the steps and positions to help me master hand to hand combat, of Nora and I going around campus and pranking as many students as we possible could.

Memories of all of us just sitting around in our dormitory lounge room, doing nothing but hanging out with each other.

Younger me slightly cracked opened the door, instantly being barraged with questions.

"You alright, lil' bro?"

"What was all that yelling for?"

"Why did Ozpin leave?"

"Guys guys, everything is fine. Ozpin left to think about some stuff. I'm just sitting here talking to the window diver guy." He expertly calmed them down.

"Wait, he's awake?!" I could hear Weiss exclaim.

"What's he like? Did you find out why he looked so much like you?" Yang asked.

"Does Ozpin know who he is?" Blake wondered.

Younger Ross gave a curious glance back at me, before telling them, "You guys should probably meet him yourselves."

When he opened the door wider, all of the girls paused as they saw me looking at them.

Each and every one of their faces looked exactly liked I remembered them nine years ago.

I felt too scared to close my eyes. I was afraid that if I did, I'd wake back up in the real world, where everyone was dead, and there was nonstop war. I was afraid that this was all just an elaborate dream, and that I'd be cruelly woken up and never see my family ever again. I didn't want to ever wake up from this dream.

And yet… this wasn't a dream, was it? There they were, all alive again, right in front of my very eyes.

Yang was the first to decide to just walk up to me and say hi. "Hey there, Window Diver. Name's Yang. Nice to meetcha!"

Weiss was second to come near me, but only to chastise Yang. "Why are you greeting him so casually, like you're talking to a new neighbor?! This man is a complete stranger that just suddenly crashed in uninvited to school property!" When she finished, she faced me with a nostalgia-inducing angry face. "You are a suspicious individual that's being held in Beacon's custody until our headmaster decides what to do with you. You better watch and behave yourself, or there _will_ be consequences for insubordination!"

Weiss was then roughly pulled aside by the shoulder, as Yang got up into her face. "Hey, chill out Ice Queen! What's your deal with him?"

Weiss suddenly acted all indignant as she responded with: "What's my _deal_? This lunatic literally crashed through the cafeteria building's window, causing a huge mess everywhere, and got condiments and tea stains all over my school uniform!"

"That doesn't mean you can act all high and mighty towards him! You're being rude!"

"Excuse me? Since when has a brain-dead buffoon like you ever started caring about being _rude_?!"

"Why don't you say that again to my goddamn face, ya ice-cold _bitch_?!"

"I already am, you _brain-dead bimbo_!"

"Seriously guys? Again with the arguing? Come on, I told you both that you need to start learning to get along!" In went my younger self, trying to break up the fighting and start the damage control.

As this went on in the background, Blake walked up to me and politely nodded in greetings. "Hello. I'm Blake. You're going to have to excuse us. We're normally more stable than this, I swear."

As I kept watching the madness in front of me, I couldn't help but smile. Then I started to grin. Then it turned into giggling, until the setting was so familiarly ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh.

I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Nine years worth of memories all came rushing back at once. All the times I ever had to stop Weiss and Yang from clashing heads, all the adventures and missions we went on, all of our troubles, all of our reunions, all of our victories and failures, all of our comebacks.

I laughed and laughed and started to feel my gown getting wet.

"Hey, are you okay man? You're crying." Younger me asked in alarm as the others gave each other worried glances.

Without my smile ever leaving, I started wiping my eyes and felt my entire face soaked with tears.

But even then, the laughter and streams of tears wouldn't stop.

I tried to tell them that I was fine, "I-I-I'm okay guys. Heheh, really! It's just been so long since I've felt like this! I've always told myself th-that I was going to have to g-g-get used to n-n-never being able t-to… to… t-... see any of you ever again…"

Slowly, I felt my laughter slow down and degenerate into sobbing.

"I-I-I-I'm just so h-*hic*-happy right now… Y-You'd never believe how much I've missed you guys…"

It was then, for some reason, Yang decided to step closer to me. The way she looked at me was something I'd never expected her to do. It was something that I hadn't seen for a long time. It was the look of pure, genuine, sisterly worry.

I didn't know what caused her to reach out to me. Maybe it was my face. Maybe it was how I sounded. Maybe it was her instincts telling her to do so, deep inside her.

But when she reached out to me, she said my name like she already knew who I was.

"Ross?"

I clutched on to her like my life depended on it. I bawled and cried and shouted my little heart out.

For the rest of the evening, I held on to my big sister as I cried like the little baby brother that I was.

For that moment, everything was okay.

* * *

Welp, this was... weird.

Weiss and Blake both glanced at me with questioning looks.

Hoo boy, this is gonna be hard explaining by myself.

"You guys might wanna sit down for this. It's a doozy of a story."

For the rest of the evening, we'd watched a grown-ass man use my sister as a crying pillow.

For that moment, I found it was even weirder when I remembered that that grown-ass man was me from the future.

Meanwhile, Yang had the most terrified look on her face: _"Somebody please help, I am so confused right now."_

…

"But first I'm gonna get some cookies. Be right back."

" _DammitRossgetbackhere"_

* * *

 **AN: I feel like the pacing could've been better. What do you think about this chapter?**


	4. Getting To Meet My Team Again (Is Weird)

"I don't believe a single bit of this."

I just finished explaining to them everything that was going on. How this guy was actually me from the future, who went back in time so that he could prevent a war from happening and save the world.

I got mixed reactions, I think.

"I'll admit, despite the similarities you two might have, I have my doubts about him being 'you from the future.'" Blake air-quoted.

"But it's true! You guy's gotta believe me! I mean, Ozpin believes it! He left to go study the magical time travel device thing that Future Me used!" I argued.

" _Ooorr_ , more realistically, he left so that he could contact medical authorities to come up here and take this man to an insane asylum." Weiss argued back, "This isn't a science-fiction story, Ross. Time travel does not exist!"

"In all likelihood, it would be more plausible to assume that this person is actually a long lost relative, or someone who just so happens to coincidentally look like you. Remnant is a large world, and meeting a doppelganger isn't exactly unheard of." Blake added her two cents.

"But I'm telling you guys that he's not! He's actually me from the future! He said so himself!" I desperately tried to convince them.

"Ugh!" Weiss groaned, "Yang, could you please tell your brother that he's being ridiculous?"

"Sshh, it's alright. Everything is gonna be okay." Yang whispered gently.

We all looked over to her as she held and comforted the silently-sobbing Future Ross.

Huh, she was pretty good at comforting other people. Wonder how she learned to do that?

"Oh for the love of…" Weiss marched up to Yang, "You can't seriously tell me that you actually believe this person is-"

"Hey, Weiss? Shut your goddamn face for five minutes, yeah? Thanks." Yang interrupted before going back to comforting Future Ross.

Weiss had a look of astonishment for a second, before pinching her forehead and walking away, "I'm the only sane person in this team, I swear."

Future Ross had finally calmed down, taking deep breaths to control his breathing. Finally letting go of Yang, he began wiping his eyes and smiled. "I-I needed that, I think. Thanks."

"No problem." Yang smiled back, before calmly asking, "So… You're really Ross from nine years in the future?"

Finished wiping off the last tear on his face, he silently nodded.

"I… don't even know what to say to that. It's just…wow." Yang looked him over, before commenting, "You've really gotten taller since… well, the last nine years, I guess."

"I never stopped drinking milk. I've actually outgrown you, so you can't call me short anymore, huh?" He chuckled.

"I just can't…how is this even possible?" She asked, still bewildered.

"It's sort of a long story-"

"Which I've already told and explained to everyone while you were busy with your mental breakdown." I added.

"Yeah…" He deadpanned at me, before facing back at Yang, "Basically, I found a time travel machine and used it to go back."

"Hah! A likely excuse. You really expect us to believe that you just so happened to conveniently _'find'_ a time traveling machine lying around somewhere?" Weiss mocked.

"Well… yeah?" He shrugged. "I mean, it's not like I would know how to build one."

She crossed her arms and harrumphed, still not convinced.

Blake stepped next to Yang and spoke up, "Weiss's attitude aside, she does bring up a good point. Forgive me for saying this, but I find it difficult to believe that you're really Ross from the future unless you provide us with some proof." She looked at Yang, "You seem to trust him though. How are you so sure that he's really who he says he is? Why so quick to believe someone who claims to be your own brother?"

Yang frowned, "I don't really know how to explain it, to be honest. The way he looks, the way he acts and talk, I can just feel that he's my little brother. Sister's intuition, I guess…"

"Well, I'm going to need more concrete evidence than the gut feelings of someone else." She looked back at Future Ross, "So, do you have proof?"

Future Ross hummed, "Alright. What kind of proof? Like, do you want me to tell you personal facts about yourself that only you would know?"

"That would be a start, yes."

Future Ross scratched his chin in thought, before giving a mischievous smile. "Chapter thirteen of the first book, page 238. Fourth paragraph. Right after Mizuri and Sasuke just finished making love within the forest of blossom trees, Sasuke admits that he had always been in love with Mizuri since the day she saved his life. It was one of the most tearful, emotional, and most romantic moments in the series, which also happened to be your favorite part of the entire book. You liked it because you felt satisfaction that those two finally got together after chapters of nonstop ship teasing."

I, uh… I didn't know what that meant. What was he referencing? A scene from a book? Which book?

Weiss and I shared confusing glances before looking at Blake to see how she reacted.

Blake seemed to know what he was talking about, judging by how her eyes went wide like saucers. "H-how did you…?" She stammered, but never quite finished.

"At some point, I found your book under your pillow after cleaning up a mess I made in the dorm. I gave it a read and found that I really liked the romance aspect of the story, smut aside. When you found me out, I was practically begging you to let me borrow it for the night just so that I could read all of it. _Ninjas of Love_ had a really good story, and you were pretty happy to have someone to share your opinions and love for it without getting embarrassed." He explained with a reminiscent smile. "Personally, my favorite scene was when Sasuke overcame his internal demons and decided to spare his father's life, despite how crappy his dad treated him back when he was a kid. He proved that his past doesn't shape or control his life, despite everything that's ever happened to him, deciding to be the better man and letting his resentment go. You always disagreed, complaining that Sasuke's father had everything that was coming to him, and Sasuke had every right to end him at that part. You were still happy that he didn't end up turning into a monster at the end though, so you appreciated what the scene stood for."

Blake numbly stepped back in shock. She began looking him over, with this almost fearful look in her eyes.

"If that's not enough for you, then I should probably tell you that, even though you're a girl, you act more like a cat." He smiled coyly.

Blake went frozen stiff, her hand moving to almost reach up to her bow, but then stopping before it looked too obvious.

Future Ross gave her a knowing wink.

Was he talking about how Blake was a cat Faunus? A fact that she was keeping a secret from us?

"I also know about your ex, Adam." He continued, "Yes, the same Adam with the red hair and the Iaido sword fighting style. I also know why you left him and his… group." He cleared his throat awkwardly, "If I'm getting out of my boundaries, just tell me and I'll shut up… but don't feel bad about leaving him. He's an asshole. You and a lot of other people would have gotten hurt if you stayed with him."

"Wait, what's he talking about? What does that mean?" Yang asked, confused.

"Oh, Blake is actually-"

"Ross." Future Ross interrupted, before shaking his head. "Not now."

"Right, sorry." I winced, forgetting that Blake was still actually keeping all of this a secret, and that I wasn't even supposed to know any of this yet. "Nevermind. We'll find out later." I told Yang.

Blake slowly shook her head in disbelief. "That's not possible…"

"We would have gotten to know each other for the next six years. This stuff isn't exactly easy to keep a secret for so long. But you don't have to worry, we all became better friends for it after we found out, so it did more good than harm." Ross finished with a calm smile.

Blake blinked, taking a moment to try to get her mind to comprehend everything that was happening.

I tentatively reached out to her, concerned if she was gonna be okay after having her personal secrets told straight to her face by a person she thought she didn't even know. "You gonna be alright?"

Seeing my hand, she backed away a few steps and looked at me with an almost fearful expression, as if I was the one that was doing this to her.

I'll be honest, the way she looked at me…it kinda hurt.

But I pulled back my hand anyway, knowing that I was probably not the one that she needed comfort from at the moment.

"Sorry." There was a flash of guilt from her, noticing my hurt look. "I think I need a minute by myself."

Without another word, she left the room.

There was the familiar awkward silence in the air that lingered for a few moments.

We all looked each other, and then back to Future Ross as he rubbed his face. "Crap, I think I might have overwhelmed her. Really hoping that doesn't do any long term damage down the road…"

After hearing that and silently witnessing the whole thing happening from the side, Weiss couldn't take it anymore and marched up to Future Ross to angrily shout, "What the hell did you do to her?! What sort of bullshit were you spewing that made her act like that?!"

"I just wanted to prove I'm who I say I am. I know things about you guys that a normal person wouldn't know about unless they were your closest friends for years." He explained himself. "Like for example, I know that your full name is Weiss Kristall Schnee. Translated, it would be White Crystal Snow. Your mom gave you that name, after your great grandmother. It's a cute name that fits you pretty well."

She reeled back a bit, before regaining her composure. "A lucky guess. So what? You looked up my family history and used common sense to guess my middle name. That doesn't prove that you're from the future. An uneducated vagrant could look this up and know this."

"Perhaps." He shrugged, "But an uneducated vagrant couldn't guess that you've had a rocky relationship with your father, rocky enough that when he started to decide your future for you, you actively rebelled against him by transferring yourself to Beacon. Even though one of your reasons for coming here was to prove to your father than you could handle yourself without needing his guidance, it was mostly just to spite him. You haven't made any contact with him since you've finished initiation at the beginning of the year, am I right?"

"That- that is- How would you know anything about my relationship with my father?!" Weiss sounded outraged, but there was a small hint of surprise behind her anger.

"At some point in the future, you decided to open up to us about yourself. Your childhood, your hobbies, your talent at singing, even your family life." He told her, "I know about your weird obsession with aquatic animal plushies, with your favorites being sharks and penguins. You have a collection of them back home that you started way back when you were seven. I also know about your secret love for video games, specifically games that revolve around team-based shooters." He suddenly smiled, as he started looking back. "You always tried to hide that from us, but one fateful weekend day when you had the whole dorm room to yourself, I came back a bit early to find you shouting something about 'camping alien scrub lord peasants.' You really really tried your best to convince me that you were just doing research when I caught you, and it was pretty hilarious."

Future Ross chuckled fondly. "We eventually started playing games together, which sort of got us a bit closer as friends."

Like how Blake reacted earlier to Future Ross's proof, Weiss was a bit stunned as she slowly stepped away from him. "Who are you?" She asked, all traces of anger suddenly vanished and replaced with astonishment.

"Well…" He thought carefully about what he wanted to say next, before deciding to go with an old in-joke that I hadn't used since my first week in Beacon. "I think we should start over from the beginning. Hi, my name is Ross Rose. It's nice to meet you, Weiss. Please don't murder my face with a chainsaw."

Weiss didn't respond. She didn't say anything at all. In fact, all she did was stare at him. Stared with emotionless, unblinking eyes.

"Uh, Weiss? You…uh…" I wanted to check to make sure she was okay.

But without saying a single word, she spun on her heel and just left the room.

Thus, another round of awkward silence.

I silently glanced at Future Ross as he made a familiar facial expression that I deemed worthy to call it the "Welp, shit" face.

"I mean… That probably could've gone a lot better." Yang commented.

"Yeah… But it also could've gone a lot worst." He sighed, before raising his fist up in a cheery manner, "Here's to hoping that they start believing me, and not assume that I'm a crazy stalker that has been following the both of them around for their entire lives. Because _that_ would definitely be weird."

I raised my first up in cheers, sharing similar optimism to the situation. "Here's to hoping."

Then we calmly EPIC FIIIIIST BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMP, YEEAAAAAAAAAAH-

*Non-existent explosions in background*

As Future Ross pulled back, he looked at me with a humorous grin. "Did you just imagine explosions popping up as we fist-bumped?"

"Pfft, what? No." I lied convincingly. "Why, did you?"

"Yeah." He chuckled.

I smiled back.

This was gonna be an interesting day.

* * *

Weiss silently leaned against the door, mulling over everything that had happened.

Needless to say, this was rather… overwhelming for her to handle.

How could a stranger know so much about her? How could he look so much like her partner?

Was it seriously possible for someone to travel back in time, bringing along knowledge of future events and information?

Why would she ever reveal so much about herself to someone like Ross?

She looked to the side to find Blake watching her, while also having the same troubling expression that she herself must be wearing right now.

Neither of them really traded words with each other. Not sure whether it was because they'd rather not talk, or because they didn't really know what to say.

But the hallway was in absolute silence, as both teammates could agree with each other on one thing.

Shit was _weird_.

And so they sat there.

Silent.

Questioning.

Wondering.

Worrying.

There was no possible way that the man they just met could ever be Ross Rose from the future, could there?

Was it just coincidence? A trick? A semblance?

What possible semblance could exist that would give someone the ability to imitate someone else, while also being able to figure out a person's deepest life history and secrets?

There had to be an explanation for all of this.

Time travel couldn't possibly exist.

…could it?

* * *

To think that he would be the first to have invented it.

Ozpin stared deeply at the device in his hands. The feeling of nostalgia and familiarity returned, despite never once holding such a device prior to today.

A time travelling machine.

An actual functioning- well, formerly functioning- time travel device that was soon to be invented by him in the near future.

What would inspired him to do such a thing? To create a machine that could allow you to travel through time? And why with such a seemingly arbitrary requirement for it to work? Did he meant only allow someone access if they were to travel at the speed of five hundred miles per hour? Was this a design flaw, a prototype, did he intentionally make this with a certain person in mind?

Judging by the words of the older Ross Rose, perhaps he'd never know. He would apparently die before anyone could find out about it.

His own mysterious nature had now been used against him, it seemed.

He chuckled at the thought, looking over the device once more.

He supposed it wouldn't be too hard to predict what had transpired. This was, after all, Ozpin that he was thinking about. If anyone could understand the man, it was the man himself.

Let's see…he wasn't the type of person to go about and study science, no, he would be far too busy for that. Most likely, it was not he who had discovered the formula or method to time travel, but rather, someone else.

An old friend? A doctor? A general? Someone he must know.

Whoever it was, they had decided to share the discovery with Ozpin for some reason.

Any normal person would usually dismiss something as outlandish and impossible as this. Obviously, Ozpin was a not normal person.

Thus, he took the news of time travel seriously enough to have begun working on it in secret.

Why in secret? He would guess that during a time of war, people counted on him to be a calm and respectable figure of authority and leadership. Politics were always a fickle thing, so Ozpin must have kept his work secret, as to maintain his credibility as a sane and level-headed leader.

That was his best guess anyway.

Another guess would be that the device he was holding in his hand was still a prototype, as the Ozpin from the future was never able to finish his work due to his untimely demise. It had to be a prototype. He highly doubted he would leave it finished looking like a small piece of a disrepair gun, with such a strange and complicated, almost impossible, requirement for it to start.

As soon as he thought that, he unconsciously switched the safety off again.

Nothing happened.

He would need to ask Ross about more details on this device. Hopefully, he would have at least a general understanding of it, even if he had only used it once.

…

He never thought that something so drastic and life changing could happen so soon.

It had been eighty years since the Great War. A few decades since the Faunus Rights Revolution. Now there was supposedly a new war that would start in just a few short years. The War of the White Fang.

A war that could potentially wipe out all of mankind, not by the hands of mankind itself, but by the claws of the Grimm who patiently waited by the side.

Unless stopped.

Prevented from ever existing in the first place.

That was what Ross Rose said he would do. That was what his mission entailed.

But could one single man be enough?

One single, broken man, who was once a young, naive boy before shown the crueler side of reality?

Ozpin had seen his eyes. Ross's eyes.

Silver. Lifeless. Dead.

Eyes devoid of all innocence. Replaced by a merciless killer.

Yet, it was still the same silver eyes.

For some reason, the thought did not bring him much comfort.

He had a bad feeling that there was much more to this than a simple war with a terrorist group.

…

Ozpin set the device down and pressed a button, calling the infirmary staff. "Please have a nurse notify the patient in room 221b that he is expected to be in my office. Please provide him his clothing and anything else he might need."

He was ready to ask questions now.

* * *

Young Ross leaned forward, "How did the season finale of 'Acceptance Comes From Moving Forward' end?"

"Spoiler warning, Kestrel sacrifices her memories of her lover in order to save her brother from death. Basically, season one through five never happened for her."

"Did they ever stop making my favorite shampoo product?" Yang asked.

"Yes, but you eventually find a new favorite called 'More Is Less.'"

"How's Pumpkin Pete doing in the future?" Young Me asked in concern.

"Terribly. With me using most of my money to fund the war effort, Pumpkin Pete lost it's only income, so they went bankrupt, BUT not before they created and sold their last flavor in their cookies department."

"New flavor? What was it?"

"Ironically enough, it was pumpkin flavor. It tasted terrible too, so that didn't really help their business. A shame, I know."

This had been going on for the past few minutes, me playing twenty questions with Yang and my younger self.

It was pretty fun to see their reactions towards things that may or may not happen yet.

"Did our technology ever evolve?" Ross wondered.

"Actually, yes. We found out more scientific discoveries about Dust, causing a huge wave of technological advancements and more complicated elemental algorithms."

Yang hummed, trying to figure out what other questions there might be that she could ask, before deciding on, "Did we ever become famous in the future?"

Famous?

Could you call what I had, 'being famous?'

...

"Yeah, sort of... But not for the reasons you might have guessed."

"I'm gonna be famous one day?" Ross gasped, and then proceeded to giggle like an insane person, "How does it feel to be so well known? Do I have any fans? Fan clubs? Ooh, how many autographs do I usually get to sign? Do I have my own book yet? Has a kid ever walked up to you and told you how they want to grow up to be like you some-"

"Yeah okay, calm your mammaries, Ross." I waved him down, before explaining, "It's not THAT type of 'famous' that you're thinking about. It's less 'Superhero Celebrity' famous and more… Uh… How would you call it? Um…"

I snapped my finger as I concentrated, trying to find a good comparison.

"Like, 'historical figure' famous?" Yang offered.

"Well, I'm not exactly _that_ either, since I would need to have made a considerable impact towards history, and a certain amount of people would need to, like, _be alive_ long enough to spread my legacy after I pass away." I deadpanned, "But yeah, that's a pretty good comparison anyway."

Young Ross quirked an eyebrow, "So, you're famous… But not really?"

I shrugged, "Meh. I certainly don't have any fan clubs. Not to my knowledge, at least."

It'd be really freaking creepy if I did, though.

"Aw…" Ross deflated.

Yang leaned forward as she asked me, "But you were still sort of famous, right? What did you do to get the attention?"

Memories of the war sprang into my head.

* * *

 _My first kill. My first mission. It ultimately spiraled downhill from there._

 _A story about a young boy, a young and naive boy, who willingly volunteered to take part in the war to stop the bad guys from terrorizing the peace of the world. Backed by a group of close and loyal friends that will follow his side to the ends of Remnant itself, the naive boy thought that nothing could ever go wrong as long as he always kept his chin up._

 _Too bad reality tends to have a habit of forcing him to drop it._

 _Stress. Pain. Loss._

 _The terrible truth of realizing that justice does not exist in a world like this._

 _I lost my friends, one by one, to forces of my enemies._

 _Justice could never fix that. It could never recompense the tragedy I experienced._

 _Revenge could though. Albeit, rather bittersweetly._

 _Killing people was easier than I originally assumed, frighteningly enough. Not sure if it was because I took comfort from the fact I only killed the ones I deemed 'evil,' or if I was already too insane to care anymore._

 _The more I grew up and trained, the more I learned._

 _The more I learned, the more I killed._

 _The more I killed, the more it changed me and my fighting style._

 _Swift movement and theatrical attacks were replaced by even quicker feet, but now with a more brutal and unforgiving hand. Senses grew sharper. I learned to be more subtle. I learned to be more analytical._

 _Once, I would toy and play with groups of criminals or soldiers, taunting them into aggression and flaunt my degree of skill, before effortlessly incapacitating them all without a single blood shed._

 _Now, those very same groups of criminals and soldiers could charge at me…only to be replaced by headless corpses seconds later._

 _I've grown to earn a reputation amongst my enemies._

He who moves as silent as wind, yet quicker than the eye can see.

He who wields an oversized scythe that gleams a dripping crimson in the moonlight, yet fits right in with the shadows.

He who wears a coat painted red by the blood of all he has killed.

If you ever felt the soft red petals of a rose to caress your features…

Then the feeling of death will come soon after by the Rose's thorns.

Fear the _**Red Reaper**_.

* * *

"I beat the shit out of a bunch of guys and got tons of medals for it." I told her.

"Oh. Cool." She commented rather anti-climatically.

Young Ross sighed in disappointment, "Man, I was really hoping to be famous enough to have a book written about me."

"Dude, just go write your own book if you're that big-headed about yourself!" I chuckled.

He pouted as he blushed and looked away.

"Wait, what about the rest of team RWBY?" My sister pointed out.

Oops, looks like it's back to memories of the war again.

* * *

 _Oh yeah, almost forgot that they had nicknames for themselves too._

 _Weiss was the Slaver's Heiress, Blake was Bloodthirsty Traitor, and Yang was BigTitsMcGee_ _FaceBlowUpper._

 _That was literally what they called Yang. I wished I made that up, but that's what they decided to call her, out of all the names they could have thought up of._

 _Unsurprisingly, I was the last one out of my team to earn my own nickname. Didn't really go insane with revenge yet since they were still alive at the time._

 _So yeah._

* * *

"You guys got medals too." I nodded to her, before adding, "I had the most though."

"Heheh, I'm not that surprised."

The room was silent again, only because these two were now thinking of more questions to ask me.

To be honest, I was somewhat surprised that neither of them had asked me some of the more…you know, _worrying_ topics. Like how I was in a war that literally ended mankind.

Though, judging by the occasional sad smile and concerned glances from Yang, and the telltale signs of my younger self's fidgeting to hide his nervousness… I was guessing that they were trying their best to avoid asking things like that. For now, at least.

My younger self has already heard enough about it from my explanation with Ozpin, so there's no doubt that he must have a rather depressing image of a future dystopian-like Vale. Which he was also doing his best to not think about.

I envied him. His personal imagination of the future must still be five times better than the reality of it. If only I had the mindset of my fifteen year old self again…

Yang probably had a strong idea of what I'd been through. Who wouldn't, really? It was rather obvious from my reaction during our first meeting. A normal man didn't cry and hold someone so closely like I did unless something had happened to prompt it.

She must have had a lingering question on the tip of her tongue that she kept biting back.

" _What happened to me?"_

She wouldn't be asking that out of concern for herself though. She would ask that out of concern for me. Of my well-being and mental state.

What happened to the Yang Xiao-Long from my time-period that would cause me to act the way I did towards her?

That was the question she wanted to so desperately ask, but kept holding back.

You could see her internal struggle by the way she tensed up whenever she was about to say something. Almost as if thinking better of it, or thinking how to rephrase it before it was asked.

They wanted to ask these questions. These scary and depressing questions. But they also didn't want to at the same time.

Was it because they were too scared to ask? Too hesitant to ask for confirmation of their fears?

Was it for my own sake? So that I wouldn't start freaking out like I did moments before?

Ross had witnessed my anger.

Yang had witnessed my grief.

They probably didn't want to see any more.

…

"PBBBBHHHT!" I blew a raspberry out of nowhere, startling the two teens out of their inner monologues.

They both calmed down after realizing it was just me.

"Geez, what was that for?" Yang asked, slightly out of breath from the shock.

"I was bored, and you guys were acting really tense and went silent for the past two minutes some reason."

"Sorry, I guess. I was kinda spacing out over… something." Young Ross awkwardly scratched his neck.

"Yeah…me too, sorta." Yang rubbed her shoulder, frowning as she subtly avoided eye contact.

Pfft, sensitive plebeians.

"Welp, if you guys don't have any questions to ask at the moment, I hope you don't mind if I asked a few of my own."

"You got questions?" Ross gave a confused expression, "What sort of questions would you need to ask us? Shouldn't you know everything since you're from the future?"

"Uh, yeah, no. I didn't exactly come here on a yacht with luggage and a party planner." I deadpanned. "The time machine I used wasn't perfected, and the plan to go back to the past was entirely improvised from the beginning. I ran in like a blind duckling the entire time, not knowing whether or not it was gonna work, how far it would take me back, and if I would need to learn how to invent buckets again in order to have something comfortable to shit in. So yes, I'm gonna have a couple of questions despite being from the damn future."

…

Ross scrunched up his face, "Wait, was that shitting in a bucket thing an analogy or liter-"

"Just tell me what the semester is today." I interrupted.

"Uh, alright." He paused for a moment to recollect what day it was, "I'm pretty sure it's still our first semester. Like, we've only been here for a couple months now?"

First semester, huh? Yes, that makes sense…that means the Vytal festival would only be about half a year away. That was probably more than enough time to complete my mission and prevent the events that lead to the war.

"What month is it specifically?"

"It's November."

November, yes…preparations are still being made. Specific White Fang hideouts would still be in use at the moment to smuggle Dust and coordinate positions. Most of my targets and figures of power should be vulnerable at this time.

Okay, time to work out my strategy.

I closed my eyes and visually imagined an entire map of Remnant, and began to work-

"Mr. Rose?"

My thought process interrupted before it even began, I glanced up to the door.

A nurse that I'd known way back when, her name was Ms. Higgins if I remembered correctly, stood by the door while holding a familiar red pile of clothes.

 **"Yes nurse?"**

Both me and the Young Ross had accidentally replied in unison, assuming the nurse had called out for specifically one of us instead of the other. Somewhat surprised, we looked at each other, before looking back at the nurse for clarification over who she meant.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to call on the patient, Ross Rose." She chuckled embarrassingly, before continuing, "You should be fully rested now. The Headmaster would like to speak with you in his office. I've brought you your clothing, which have been cleaned and fixed up in better condition."

She walked over and laid my clothes in my lap, "Headmaster Ozpin has made it clear for you to take your time if you are still feeling unwell. Should you require anything before meeting with him, do not hesitate to ask, okay?"

I nodded, "Thank you for the hospitality, Nurse."

She waved away my thanks, "Oh it's no trouble, sir. Stay safe and try to avoid crashing through windows next time!" With that, she left.

What a nice and professional lady. Such a shame that she was killed by an enemy sniper while she was healing the wounded in the midst of battle. If everything went my way, she'd live for another few decades while she nurtured injured students back to health again.

Mentally putting a pin on setting up my strategic plan for a later time by visually imagining myself pinning up an actual imaginary note next to my imaginary map of Remnant to remind myself to get to that eventually, I animatedly jumped out of bed and put my clothes on.

"Welp, looks like it's time for me to meet up with the big man. When I'm done talking to Ozpin, hopefully we can all hang out for a bit longer before I have to go do my thing."

"Go do your thing? Where are you going after this? What are you gonna do?" Ross asked curiously.

Zipping up my black combat bodysuit, I flung my trademarked red trench coat into the air before stylishly and efficiently spinning with my arms up to let the coat fall into place in one fell swoop.

Haven't felt this theatrical in a while. Must be in a good mood today.

Last nail in the head, I smirked at Ross before proclaiming dramatically, "I'm gonna go save the world."

*AWESOME JAZZ SPY MUSIC PLAYS LIEK A BAWSS*

Yang let out an impressive whistle, "Nice digs, man!"

Ross stared in awe at my current attire, "You got a new leather coat. What happened to the old red hoodie?"

I shrugged, before giving him an unjustified smug grin, "I outgrew it."

Ross pouted, suddenly looking self-conscious as he crossed his arms and tried to hide behind his hoodie.

I laughed at his expense, before firmly patting his head, "Don't worry, you will too. Trust me, I'm from the future. I should know."

Still pouting, he at least seemed a little relieved at my assurance.

Ah, thank goodness I got rid of my old height inferiority complex.

It was actually a bit funny to poke fun at it again, now that it wasn't me with the complex anymore.

I looked over the table which had my belongings, making sure I wasn't missing anything.

My badge? Probably useless since it was from a future time, and was thus rendered invalid. I think I'll still hold onto it for the sentimental value though. Could even fool some people who weren't officials, so it might still come in handy in some situations. I pinned the badge onto my coat.

My journal? Obviously, I couldn't forget to bring along the sole reason why I hadn't gone off the deep end and killed myself yet. I pocketed that away inside my coat.

And… my camera. My arsenal. My tools of vengeance and information gathering.

My memories.

…

I attached it onto the belt of my combat suit, back to it's proper place.

The time travel device was still in Ozpin's possessions. I'll pick that up later when I meet up with him.

Finished with everything, I looked back to the two teens in the room, "So, where you guys headed? I'm pretty sure it's still school time. You guys gotta see Ozpin for questioning too, or…?"

"Oh right, we were here because Ozpin wanted to talk to all of us as well. But he left before he got around to that." Young Ross stood up from his seat, and suggested, "Let's go meet up with him all together."

"Most likely a terrible idea." I pointed out.

"Eh?"

"Well, the whole thing will probably be awkward if I had to walk alongside both Blake and Weiss at the moment. You know, after just fucking up their perspective of reality and probably creeping them out with my knowledge of their future lives." I reminded him, "It's best I go on up ahead first, and you guys catch up with me after. With Ozpin's help, I'm sure the two will come around when they hear him vouch for me."

"Huh. Yeah, okay, that makes sense." He nodded, awkwardly scratching his neck again.

"Alright, cool. See you in Ozpin's office." I waved farewell before leaving the patient's room.

As I reached the doorway, that was when I saw the Weiss and Blake out in the hallway, sitting sitting next to each other by the visitor seats.

They both tensed up when they saw me, staring at me as if unsure what to do or how to properly react.

I might as well apologize for freaking them out.

"Hey girls…" I calmly greeted, "Sooo, uh… Sorry for fucking ya up. Hope you guys don't hate me now."

They stayed silent.

Hm, I needed to learn how to socially interact with people again, I think. Two entire years of doing nothing but nonstop Grimm killing might have screwed me over. Also probably the shock of seeing everyone I knew and loved alive again didn't seem to be helping either.

"Alrighty then…" I coughed awkwardly, before moving away to leave them alone.

I could still feel their piercing stares behind my head as I walked away.

Sigh… I have no idea what I'm doing.

* * *

 **Me neither Ross. I wrote this chapter while on writer's block. Feels like this chapter is lacking a direction.**

 **Btw, the tone is definitely supposed to be dark and humorous. If at any point you felt mood-whiplash, that's just how Future Ross is experiencing the situation due to the fact that he's literally insane.**

 **Dammit, I can't wait until I get to the part where Future Ross and Team RWBY fight in a duel together. I wanna see if my writing skills over fighting has improved over the years.**

 **Kudos to Kildeez, my editor.**

 **Kudos to Mr Beaver Buttington for suggestions. Sorry if most of them I ultimately rejected.**


End file.
